Did my lift today..Broke a sway bar kink which was an easy fix! What is NOT going to be an easy fix is the fact that ALL FOUR of the rear upper shock bolts snapped off. SO the lift is in but the shocks are not mounted up top till I can figure out a solution other than cutting through the rear cargo floor. I was thinking of welding the upper shock mounts in place. Those bolts are SO lightweight!

 

check with STRYKER, i think he has a write up on how to fix this. it involves drilling or cutting the broken bolts out and double nutting the bolts.

 

Take a hammer and a chisel and punch the factory welded in nuts out. They are only tacked in place and will break loose easily. You can the fish a new bolt down through the hole and put one nut on to hold it in place and tighten it down. Then you use a second nut to secure the shocks. It seems like a very small area to work in but you can get a wrench in there to hold the bolt while you tighten up the first nut. Be sure to use some thread lock to prevent the new nuts from rusting and seizing in place like the old ones.

 

X2
I did this as well and it makes it so much easier to do the shocks the next time. And it doesn't take half as long as it sounds. I did all four of my bolts in under 20 minutes.

 

I was expecting these bolts to break from all the reading I have done here....so as soon as they snapped I just moved onto the next thing to do. I never really examined the whole area up there. Does anyone have a pic of the upper shock mount? I am curious to see this little triangular hole I am to fish a bolt into. Also...when punching out the tacked on nuts...do I just take something like a ctr punch and a hammer, and hammer upwards from the underside? Will this be enough to knock that tacked on nut off? Lastly, do I drill the holes bigger to accommodate the new grade 8 bolts I want to put in..I know it seems obvious, but I haven't seen any mention of this.
Thanks for all the help guys!

 

Yep, just knock them upwards. I did not drill out larger holes at all. I just got grade 8 bolts to fit in the holes that are there. If the bolts are to big they will not fit in the shocks.

 

LOL...Good point! Well this seems like a better solution to welding the shocks in. I will give it a go!

 

I'm about to do my lift and before I do, I'm going to the hardware store to get four grade a bolts, nuts, and washers. I'm gonna weld the nut to the washer and drill out the old nut big enough so the new one fit completely in the hole, but the washer welded to it keeps it from sliding through. Then I'm gonna weld the washer to the unibody and it's just like it came stock, only no fishing bolts through or cutting the floor apart.

 

if you plan on removing your rear swaybar like alot of guys do, the little triangular brackets make great bar pin eliminators. Just gotta spread em a little wider for the shock to fit in there.